It’s really not that hard to understand if you know how most people’s minds work.
Let’s say someone wants to find something about Southwest Airlines – one of their policies maybe, or a flight status. And let’s say he didn’t already know their website address.
So of course he goes to Google and types in Southwest Airlines in the search box.
At the very top, what comes up but “Southwest Official Site”. Doesn’t that look look like the perfect place to find out whatever kind of information he wants? And it actually is. What the user may not know is that, since that’s in the purple section, it’s actually a paid ad from Southwest, so by clicking there Google gets a little bit of money.
A lot of things work like that. The paid ad is actually quite close to what the user was looking for anyway, and maybe exactly what he wanted.
It’s really a tribute to Googol’s internal ad placing algorithm.
Yes, but don’t these people notice that that particular southwest link is in a different colored box than everything else? How can they not notice it is in the pink box of shame?
My eyes don’t even see the pink box of shame because it so obviously has paid advertisements in it. Am I the only one that hates advertisements?
What I like are all of the past TV show seasons that are available. Stuff that I had never heard of (especially from the BBC) and stuff that I just wasn’t going to make an appointment to see.
Google and Southwest are betting that your eyes do see it, and there’s an entire industry of advertising executives who love people like you who think that advertising doesn’t affect them. Their studies say that it does affect you below your conscious level.
For another approach, how about the political Google ads on the SDMB? Many people have them blocked, but even those who don’t have them blocked sometimes comment on them in thread, so someone’s seeing them. And even if they’re not clicking, sometimes clicks aren’t the intent- what about those ads that say “Is Obama a secret terrorist?” They don’t necessarily want you to click on the ad, they just want to plant in your mind the idea that Obama might be a terrorist. That works even if you don’t click, because all they aim to do is cast doubt.
Jos. A. Bank, where I’ve shopped for 25+ years, seems to have gone out of its tree now that they’re giving away $1,000 of free clothes with the purchase of a suit at full retail. None of their suits sell for anywhere near $1,000. They must really need to clear out inventory.
I don’t hate advertisements, I just click on a link if it looks useful. I certainly don’t care what colored box it’s in. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
I’ve never understood how what Jos. A Bank does is legal. Nothing there ever sells for full price. Nor is anything there worth anything close to the price on the tags.
Look, I like cheap suits as much as the next guy who has to wear one every day. And in fact, I just bought one the other day from them because they’re inexpensive, look reasonably decent, and are convenient.
But the suit was regular price $600. Come on. No one in the history of suits or Joseph A Bank has ever paid $600 for one of their suits. I paid a little under $200, and I’m guessing that was about the average actual price paid for their suits.
Anyway, isn’t there a law that says that if you have a sale, the item has to be priced at the regular price a certain number of days? Ain’t no way Jos. A Bank is selling anything at full price. I’ve literally never been there when there wasn’t some kind of massive promotion going on–either 60% off, buy 1 get 2 free, etc. etc.
I will click ads, but only if I’m looking for something specific. And that reminds me, all of the stupid ad-word lawsuits piss me off. For example, suppose I’m looking for an alternative to Southwest Airlines, but I don’t know of any other airlines. I want to see competitors’ ads!
I got to know the local 7-11 workers when I had the cast on my arm. I asked the night guy this very question. He said they get so many dopers (small d) looking for munchies that they started stocking rolling papers too. During the week, they get a lot of people who work odd shifts (not eveerybody is 9-to-5) and just “regular people” who are out late.
He said they do turn a profit on the weekend nights, and break even on weekday nights.
Another value to the customer is no driving to the video store, no standing in line while a bored clerk tries to get the scanner to work right, and no last-minute runs to the dropoff box to avoid a late fee.